On every six dollars in revenue Apple raked in during the September quarter, a buck dropped from China. Back in the June quarter, Apple’s recorded a sixfold boost in China revenues. iPhone 4S is flying off the shelves in the country, carriers are hosting millions of iPhones outside the Apple fold and gray market of unlocked iPhones is thriving. And Siri will learn to speak Chinese in 2012.
No matter how you think about it, China indeed is an “enormous opportunity” for the Cupertino, California-headquartered gadget designer. Plus, Apple is putting its money where its mouth is by committing to build at least 25 additional stores (in addition to the current enormous ones) in the massive 1.34 billion people market.
And now, Fortune chronicles an Alphawise survey of 1,553 consumers in 16 Chinese cities outlines an upward trajectory. Per data, Apple is poised to grow its five percent share of the PC market in China as a whopping 21 percent of respondents plan on switching to a Mac. They also rate Apple the most desirable PC brand, over the local Lenovos, etc.
And, like Americans, Chinese spend about $600 on a computer. Unlike Americans, only seven percent say they are willing to spend more than $1,000 for a computer, meaning less than one in ten of the switchers will limit themselves to either a Mac mini or an entry-level 11-inch $999 MacBook Air. Breakdown follows:
According to the source article, Dell is the winner in enterprise, the market Apple mostly chooses not to compete in. As for the consumer space, Dell is a minor player in China, holding steady at six percent. Rival Hewlett-Packard, on the other hand, has a greater consumer share in China than Apple as eleven percent respondents reported owning a HP machine. However, only 13 percent hope to buy one versus 21 percent for Apple. Domestic brand Lenovo has a major customer satisfaction problem as 31 percent own a Lenovo computer, but only 23 percent plan to buy another.
